'Eaters, No. 6 Cardinal Battle in Next Leg of NCAA Tournament
November 21, 2014 | Men's Soccer
NCAA First Round
UNLV Rebels 0-3 UC Irvine Anteaters
Recap
Video Preview
NCAA Second Round
UC Irvine Anteaters at No. 6 Stanford Cardinal
Sun. Nov. 23 / 5:00 PM
Palo Alto, Calif.
Bracket
Pac-12 Network
'EATERS AT LARGE
The Anteaters are in the NCAA Tournament for the fifth time in program history and first time as an at-large representative.
UCI's previous trips have seen them as the No. 8, No. 12, No. 14, and No. 16 national seed. Thursday's match will be the program's first-ever first round matchup.
The 'Eaters are now 3-2 in tournament openers defeating Cal Poly, 3-0, in 2008, shocking North Carolina, 1-0, with two seconds left in regulation last year, and dispatching of UNLV, 3-0, on Thursday. Defeats have come against Stanford, 1-0, in 2009, and again in 2011 when Saint Mary's dealt UCI a 2-1, double-overtime loss.
UCI made its second appearance in the Sweet Sixteen last season falling, 1-0, at No. 3 national seed Maryland. The team suffered a similar blow in its first trip to the third round in 2008 falling, 3-2, also to the No. 3 national seed in St. John's.
PITCH PERFECT
The Anteaters return 12 players that saw action in last year's tournament. Michael Sperber was the only returner with a point after assisting on Christopher Santana's game-winning goal against UNC.
Sunday's match will be the 24th of the season marking the most in a single season for any Anteater men's soccer squad. A win would tie the 2011 team for most in a season after they posted 16.
Michael Breslin scored his second career NCAA Tournament shutout on Thursday, the first 'Eater to do so, dropping his career postseason goals-against-average to 0.36 (3 goals allowed in 8 matches). His four saves give him 26 all-time
Cameron Iwasa produced the brace against UNLV joining Irving Garcia's two-goal performance against Cal Poly as the only 'Eaters to do so. He moves into ninth all-time with 22 career goals and ties Garcia for the most in postseason play counting six. He also joins Andrew Fontein with 11 career postseason matches for the most in program history. Surprisingly, Thursday's goal was his first game-winner of the season. It was the eighth of his career tying Amani Walker for fourth on the all-time list. It was also the second-fastest goal of the season coming in the seventh minute, second only to his fifth-minute strike to help defeat LMU, 3-2, in double overtime.
Mats Bjurman helped on each goal claiming the first two-assist match in an NCAA Tournament game. Eduardo Calzada had two assists against Sacramento State in this year's Big West Tournament. Gor Kirakosyan reclaimed the team lead with his sixth.
SEASONS GREETINGS
The 'Eaters began the season unbeaten in non-conference play going 8-0-1 in a stretch that included seven matches away from home. Their unbeaten streak ran to 10 after a draw in the Big West opener, the second-longest streak in program history. Two national seeds were in that mix. UCI defeated Clemson, 2-1, on a neutral site before travelling to Georgetown where they played to a 1-1 draw. Clemson won the ACC Tournament and sits as a No. 7 national seed while Georgetown snagged a No. 8 seed.
The 'Eaters also racked up three more wins against NCAA participants in non-conference play. They defeated Summit League champion and 19th-ranked Denver, 2-1, on a neutral site in early September. The 'Eaters scored a home, 1-0, overtime win over West Coast Conference champion San Diego. Also, UC Irvine's first round opponent, UNLV, fell, 4-2, to the 'Eaters before claiming the Western Athletic Conference tournament title this past week.
The Anteaters also hosted No. 15 national seed Cal in an exhibition match at Anteater Stadium. UC Irvine won the match, 3-1, with the lone Golden Bear goal coming via penalty kick.
One Big West school joined the 'Eaters in the tournament. Cal State Fullerton broke the tie in penalty kicks in the tournament final to earn an automatic bid after UCI won a pair of 1-0 matches over the Titans in the regular season before settling on a scoreless draw in the tournament final. Fullerton fell in its first round match, 2-1 in double overtime, against San Diego. UC Irvine finished 3-0-1 against ranked foes with wins over No. 19 Denver, No. 24 UC Santa Barbara, and No. 25 Clemson while drawing No. 6 Georgetown. All four matches came away from home.
LEADER OF THE PAC
UC Irvine's next challenge comes on the road with a trip to Palo Alto, Calif. to take on the sixth-national seed Stanford Cardinal. The match will be shown on the Pac-12 Networks on the Bay Area channel. Fans can also watch the live stream only if they are subscribed to the Pac-12 Networm. The Cardinal are coming off their first Pac-12 title in 13 years. They are in the tournament for the second straight season and 13th overall. Over those 13 appearances, Stanford has posted 15 victories and reaching the final twice losing to Indiana in 1998 and UCLA in 2002.
Last year, the Cardinal worked its way to the Sweet Sixteen after advancing via penalty kicks in the first round past LMU, and downing CSUN, 1-0, before getting shutout by Washington, 1-0.
UCI and Stanford met in the second round in 2009 in Anteater Stadium in front of the second-largest crowd in UCI history of 1,872 to see Stanford post a 1-0 victory on a 36th-minute goal from Daniel Leon. UCI was the No. 16 national seed at the time and outshot the Cardinal, 11-6, with eight coming from Amani Walker. In its tournament history, Stanford has advanced past its opening match in six of its last seven tournament berths including both instances in which it earned a national seed in 2001 (3-1 W vs. Santa Clara) and 2002 (0-0 T (10-9 PKs) vs. Portland).
The sides have met eight times in their histories, all eight going Stanford's way. The last matchup came in 2012 as Adam Jahn converted a 27th-minute PK and assisted on Dersu Abolfathi's 42nd-minute goal in the 2-0 Stanford win. The Cardinal outshot UCI, 20-6, including an 11-0 first half. Six current Anteaters were in the starting lineup and two others appeared off the bench. UCI has been shutout in four of the eight losses including each of the last three. Stanford has hosted four of the matches with the 'Eaters putting up one goal in each.
The 2014 Cardinal stand at 13-2-3. After losing its opener to a tough Creighton squad, it rattled off seven straight wins, and is unbeaten in its last nine matches going 6-0-3 with its only other loss coming to a fifth-ranked Washington squad. The one common opponent is UC Santa Barbara which Stanford trounced, 4-1, at home back on September 9.
Stanford has posted 34 goals on the season led by junior defender Brandon Vincent's six. Eric Verso has five to his name while the trio of Zach Batteer, Corey Baird, and U.S. national team member, Jordan Morris, each have four.
The defense has allowed just 16 goals this season and 69 total shots on goal anchored by Vincent, Jimmy Callinan, Tomas Hilliard-Arce, and Brian Nana-Sinkam. Keeper Andrew Epstein has stopped 53 shots.
The Cardinal pose a threat at home, undefeated in 10 matches while averaging over 1,000 fans per match. The winner will advance to play the winner of the Dartmouth-Providence match. Providence is the No. 11 national seed.
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